CarComplaints.com Notes: It's worrying when the top category for 2016 Honda Pilot problems are transmission problems. Owners report jerking when accelerating. Also as the first model year of the redesigned 3rd generation Pilot, it's not a good sign.
Honda released a TSB on October 29 2016 that's possibly related. The TSB deals with a "a judder from the torque converter lock-up clutch ... while driving between 20 and 60 mph" due to deteriorated transmission fluid resulting from "specific driving conditions". In the TSB, Honda states they are developing a software fix to try to keep the transmission fluid temperature within spec.
We are keeping a close eye on this defect trend because if certain driving conditions can affect transmission shifting in the first year of ownership, we'd hate to think what 10+ years will do.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
3 / 3
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
29,036 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The auto idle start stop does not restart automatically while in traffic or stopped. Issue has occurred several times, I must turn off vehicle completely to restart vehicle. Huge safety factor when traffic is following again and I am unable to restart vehicle.
When the auto idle stop is not disengaged (the default setting when the car starts is that the auto idle stop is engaged), the car will sometimes not restart when the idle stop occurs. It's unpredictable and scary, especially when it occurs at a light or in stop-and-go traffic. The dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree, and there is a clicking noise. I have to place it into Park, shut off the engine fully (it's not running - I think it's in Accessory mode), step on the brake and restart. Because of this, I make a habit of disengaging the auto idle stop when I start the car. Unfortunately, sometimes I forget to disengage and this engine restart failure happens. I have read that an old/weak battery is suspected. This is not true in my case. This issue has happened several times after I changed the battery on 12/15/2020. Interstate MTX48/H6 battery at $300. It's not just me - it has happened to my wife, and my 17 year old son, when driving this car. At first, I thought my wife did something wrong, then it happened to me. In total, I'd guess it's happened > 6-7 times. We try to be careful to push the button and disengage the auto idle stop. But you have to do it EVERY TIME YOU START THE CAR. If you forget or are distracted, then the problem can occur.
While stopped at a red light, with the auto start enabled, the car would not turn back on and placed the car in -??neutral-??. The dash info message prompted me to put the car in -??park-??. I did. It then instructed me to depress the brake and hit the -??start-?? button to turn the car on. It did not after I tried a few times. Finally to get it started I pushed the -??start-?? button with the key fob. It then turned on and allowed me to put it in -??drive-??.
Today was the second time my car has shut down at a traffic light in the last 2 months. The auto engine stop kicks in and the car shuts down. It took multiple combinations of pressing the start button and turning on/off the car before I could get it to restart. I-??ve recently replaced the battery so I don-??t think it-??s a weak battery.
When idling at a stop light, the auto shut off feature engaged and turned off the engine. When I engaged the gas to start moving again, the engine would not restart. I applied to brake, put the car into park and then tried to manually restart the car using the start button on the dash. The car engine would not start. The auxiliary power to the accessories would not go off when I pushed the stop/start button on the dash, but the engine would not restart either. I attempted to restart the car several times. It did not attempt to turn the engine over, but did literally nothing. I paused and waited for a minute and then attempted to restart the car again with the stop/start button and the car engine finally turned on. The exact same sequence of events has happened and two separate occasions some weeks apart. This incident put my and my passengers-?? safety at risk by stranding me at very busy intersections with no way to move the vehicle out of the road. The auto-shutoff feature has engaged while in stop and go traffic on the freeway and if this had happened then, the results could be catastrophic. I now always manually turn off this feature due to fear of this happening again and would disengage it entirely if possible, but was informed by the dealer that was not possible. No one has inspected the vehicle as the problem is not reproducible on demand, but I am willing for any necessary inspections to occur.
- Alameda, CA, USA
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The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that on multiple occasions, the START/STOP feature failed to operate as needed while at a complete stop. The contact stated that the vehicle would shut off upon releasing the brake pedal with several unknown warning lights illuminated. The contact had the vehicle towed to an independent mechanic on several occasions where several electrical components were replaced. The dealer was notified of the failure and the contact was informed that they had no knowledge of the failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 75,000.
Auto Idle System failure. This has been a problem for several years and continues to be a safety issue. If I don't disable the auto idle feature my car will die when I take my foot off of the brake to accelerate.. The vehicle has to do a complete computer reset before I am able to restart the engine. This has happened many, many times at stop lights when the light turns green and I attempt to accelerate, when waiting to merge onto the frontage road of I-35, when turning onto a main road out of a parking lot when traffic is backed up but someone was attempting to let me into the lane (I was half in and half out of the parking lot). In every situation, there is someone behind me expecting me to go (rightfully so). I could easily be hit if the other drivers weren't paying attention. This is a safety hazard and needs to be recalled and repaired. I've asked my mechanic about it and the Honda dealership. No one knows what to do. I've replaced the battery twice thinking maybe that would help but it didn't.
the engine fails to restart on its own from a complete stop at a traffic light or road intersection with the Auto Start/Stop function engaged. Making it necessary to restart manually.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated while attempting to drive from a complete stop, the brake pedal was released however, the Auto STOP/START feature failed to operate as designed. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure recurred on several occasions. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the ignition switch was replaced; however, the failure persisted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 44,000.
Multiple times the vehicle wouldn-??t start. The start stop switch is the culprit after 7 months of dealing with it and taking it to dealership finally. Car will cut off at stop light but won-??t turn back on. Takes like 4 tries to get it back on. Also at 126k or 128k engine had a knocking sound and needed replaced and it cost $7000 the air conditioning doesn-??t work and this is very upsetting this isn-??t why I buy Hondas. The start stop event happens everyday and every time I start the car and don-??t deactivate the start/stop system
My 2016 Honda pilot stalls when my car turns off from the auto idle engine. If I do not manually turn the feature off EVERYTIME I turn my car on my car will stall out when i lift my foot off the brake. It has progressively taken longer to turn the vehicle back on (anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes) I have been to honda 2x for this issue & their "fix" has never resolved the issue. They will not admit they cannot fix it, even when I showed them a video of exactly what happens when I try to get my vehicle back on.
The engine idle-stop feature did not restart. It is available for inspection. The safety of my two small children and myself was at risk as we had to get out of the car at a busy intersection. It has not been reproduced by a dealer or a service center. The vehicle and the parts have not been inspected by authorities. It happens without warning. While at a red light, when I take my foot off the brake it shuts off completely.
The Pilot has an auto start/stop function that turns off the engine when the car is stopped/idling. When the driver releases the break pedal, the engine is supposed to turn back on. The engine would very frequently fail to turn back on after idling. This happened many times at traffic lights and while stopped in traffic. It's much worse than stalling out with a manual transmission vehicle, because the engine does not turn back on quickly. The whole system (including battery power to the car) needs to be turned off and turned on again. This is a safety issue because the engine has failed to start while in traffic on the interstate, where cars are quickly accelerating, and the failure for the car to accelerate with traffic could lead to a collision. It also poses the risk of leaving the driver stuck in a dangerous location without the ability to move the car. I took the car to the dealership and they told me my battery was dying, and they charged me to replace the battery. So far, I haven't experienced anymore engine stalling with the new battery. The car has not been inspected by anyone other than the local Honda dealership. There were no warning lamps or messages prior to the failure. The failure first started in 2020, but only happened a few times. Since then, the problem increased in frequency, until I finally took it to the dealership and had the battery replaced.
I bought this car used in May 2022. My wife is the primary driver and this incident happened to her three times and myself once. When stopping at a red light, the engine turns off to save fuel with the auto start stop feature. We normally turn this off, but sometimes when we forget, the auto start fails to start the engine leaving us stuck in traffic trying to start the car at a green light. It takes multiple attempts to restart the car. This wouldn't be an issue if we could turn off the auto stop start permanently. We don't like the feature anyway, sometimes it causes the car to lurch forward when removing your foot from the break while the engine is starting.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that after stopping the vehicle and then attempting to accelerate, the vehicle lost motive power and stalled. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle restarted however, there was a delay in the proper functionality of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer to be diagnosed; however, the mechanic found no failure with the vehicle. The contact stated that an unknown part of the instrument panel was replaced however, the failure persisted. The manufacturer was not contacted or notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 20,000.
The vehicle-??s Auto Stop/Start feature routinely fails to restart the engine when releasing the brake, turning the steering wheel, or selecting Park. In order to start the vehicle, it must be placed into Park, turned off, and then turned back on by holding the Start button. This has worked on most occasions (approx 90% of occasions thus far); other times a jump start was required. Attempts to resolve from Honda have required several purchases of a new battery and denial of there being a larger issue. There is no indication or warning that the feature has failed until attempting to resume driving (or the vehicle attempts to restart itself based on the vehicle-??s self-monitored parameters). The failure to start leaves the vehicle stuck in traffic risking collision and/or personal injury as a result.
While at a stop light, with the engine "Auto Start/Stop" switch engaged, I released my foot from the brake, and the car died. I was totally confused as to what occurred. After a minute or two I was able to restart the car. I was very concerned about being re-ended as when the light changed to green is when the car died. I had no advance warning of a problem, and it just died unexpectedly as I released my foot from the break. No lights on the dash either. I notified my dealer, who had never heard of this happening, and said when I can, please bring it in. In as much as the incident occurred in May 2022, and hadn't happened since, I did not take my car into the dealer. I can take my car in at any time to be examined.
I recently saw an article that NHTSA is investigating Honda vehicles 2016-2019 regarding the idle stop/restart of the car and want to corroborate that this issue does exist. My husband and I bought a 2016 Honda Pilot Elite in late July of 2019. We believe we are the second owners of the vehicle. All was fine except for occasionally, the idle stop/restart feature would not work: the car would cut off at a red light, but when taking my foot off the brake and expecting a restart, you would see and hear all of the electrical turn off--radio, a/c, etc. and sometimes the car would not restart. I would have to wait 30 seconds or so, then restart the car as normal. The most harrowing experience with this happened on a six-lane highway where I was the last in line at a red light. The light turned green, all cars accelerated and left, but the idle stop did not restart, the car cut off completely, and it would not restart at all. I had to wait for a minute or two to re-try several times. This was a 55mph highway, I was in the middle lane completely stalled out with no other cars around me, and my children were in the car with me. I was afraid someone would come barreling along at the speed limit and hit us. We took the car in to our local Honda dealership on 11/21/19 and still have the paperwork, which reads "BMS no supplying proper voltage for auto stop function to operate properly", "Install new battery management sensor", "Battery test bad" and "replaced battery". We all figured it was the car's battery. A year later, we asked and they still couldn't disconnect that feature for us. I have made it a habit to hit the button to disable the idle stop whenever I drive the car. Just last week, my husband drove with the rest of us in the car, he did not disable the idle stop at a red light, and the car briefly cut off all electrical (but quickly turned back on) when he lifted his foot from the break. We still have the car. Please do inspect it. There are no warning signs.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the Auto START/STOP fuel-saving feature malfunctioned and the vehicle would not immediately restart after lifting off the brake pedal. The contact indicated that the failure had occurred on multiple occasions. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who was unable to determine the cause of the failure and no service was performed. The manufacturer was not yet contacted. The failure mileage was 22,000.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Carson, CA, USA